i hate tattoo elitism. you are injecting ink into yourself with a needle to permenantly stain your skin, its not an art form, its what tribes did to mark their bodies to make them look more fearsome. its what biker gangs did to look scary. its what sailors did to represent certain centiments. the one thing that pisses me off the most is when people think they are better than other people because they paid £600 for a tattoo by someone regarded as the best in the world and all that bullshit. its stupid. i know no one has made any tattoo elitist remarks yet, but i know they will come, they always do. at the end of the day, the lines will spread just like any other tattoo and all you have done is pay ten times the price for the privilage, nice

Surely the people who are considered the best are for a reason though? There must be something that makes one artist better than another? The quality of the shading, the "likeness" to the original image, the composition of the artwork etc etc I can't imagine all Tattoo Artists are at one level and that's just it. I can understand people wanting to go to the best for something so very permanent, for piece of mind if nothing else.

Does anyone have an idea of what are considered the top 5 or 10 tattoo parlours in the UK? Obviously everyone will recommend the artist who did theirs, but money being no object, who are the tattooing pimps of the UK?

I realise it will vary depending on style you want...

For portraits i would say Brendan Mudd in inkfish studio maidstone he has won all sorts of awards for his work,just picked up best wildlife portrait and best in show at the portsmouth tattoo convention .
Really nice bloke as well